


Terraces the Moon Leaves Behind

by treefrogie84



Series: Old Guard Bingo [6]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Hurt No Comfort, M/M, One-Sided Relationship, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26444731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treefrogie84/pseuds/treefrogie84
Summary: Yusuf followed Nicolo, scarcely thinking about the time and distance traveled.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Old Guard Bingo [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901185
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40
Collections: The Old Guard Bingo





	Terraces the Moon Leaves Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Title from a poem by Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab, as translated and quoted in a twitter thread. Yeah, I'm not sure of that provenance either.
> 
> Many thanks to [Nox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxlee/pseuds/noxlee) for holding my hand when i was being an idiot.

Yusuf thought they were… It doesn’t matter what he thought, he was wrong. Getting away from the clashing armies, marauding Franks, and everyone else who wanted them dead was all their agreement had included. Getting all the way to Genoa was just Yusuf’s idiot heart.

Nicolo set their course, he always did. And Yusuf, the fool he is, followed him, allowed himself to be dragged along north, towards Nicolo’s home.

Five long years of watching Nico across the fire, sleeping next to each other in dangerous places, sharing a bed the few times they could afford an inn. Admiration and desire and love growing with every footstep, every league crossed.

Yusuf never cared where they were heading— he couldn’t go home, not after everything— so he followed Nico like a dog, sharing his meals and his bedroll, his language and knowledge, his company. Everything he had, he gave to the man for a scrap of affection.

Such scraps have led him here, standing on the street in a foreign land, staring at a closed door behind which Nico was hurried by a woman his own age. Nico had _laughed_ , openly and easily, when the most Yusuf had gotten for years had been quiet chuckles, near silent huffs of amusement.

The servants shoo him away hours later, hurried and unkind, brushing off his attempts to ask after Nicolo.

They had entered the city at daybreak, some of the first through the gates. Yusuf waits until noon before silently making his way towards the harbor. He is not a sailor, and he has no coin, but he’s no stranger to ships or to work. There is no returning to his family, and his home lies behind him, in a grand house, but he can make do.

What does he have to fear of drowning?


End file.
